The government wants to reduce hybrid car subsidies because it concentrates on pure electricity

The Department for Transport (DfT) shortens subsidies that are available to customers who purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles, because the government wants to shift consumers' attention to pure electric models instead.

Starting next month, buyers of cars that emit less than 50 grams per kilometer of CO2 and have a zero emission range of at least 70 miles will see the price reductions that they qualify for a 22 percent reduction from £ 4,500 to £ 3,500.

Meanwhile, vehicles that release up to 75 g / km of CO2 but with a lower zero emission range are no longer eligible for subsidies.

"With plug-in hybrid models, such as the Mitsubishi Outlander that is becoming popular among consumers, the government is focusing its attention on zero emission models like the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3," the government said in a statement.

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It also said that the movement reflected a general decline in the price of buying alternative fuel vehicles in the UK.

The sale of alternative fuel vehicles, including various types of environmentally friendly cars, is the fastest growing sector in the car market, which has so far increased by 22 percent this year, according to research by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders ( SMMT).

Hybrid cars have both a combustion and electric engine, and customers have had incentives to buy them as part of government efforts since 2011 to set up the plug-in car market and reduce car emissions. to lower.

The Nissan Leaf is a very popular, fully electric vehicle, an example of the kind of vehicle that the government now wants to promote with their new overhaul of vehicle drains (Source: Getty)

However, the total vehicle market declined 7.5 percent this year, following recent measures against diesel and more stringent emission tests.

The announcement comes two weeks before Chancellor Philip Hammond makes his annual budget statement and three months after the government published its Road to Zero strategy, with a proposal to remove petrol and diesel cars by 2050 from British roads, a move that allowed all motorists to own electric models.

The decision led to anger by industrial trade organizations, including the SMMT.

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"Premature abolition of prominent purchase subsidies can have a devastating impact on demand – without world-class incentives, the world-class government's ambitions will not be delivered," said Mike Hawes, CEO of SMMT.

Jack Cousens, head of the highway policy of The Automobile Association, feared that this would impede the government's goals to promote the sale of green cars.

"The government wants to put an end to the sale of petrol and diesel cars, but removing subsidies for cars with low emissions can block their progress." This announcement will simply relinquish more drivers from buying greener cars, "he said.